Investigator The Investigator is the classic detective, at home on the streets searching for his prey.
Alignment: Any Class Skills Appraise (Int), Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge: Local (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Open Lock (Dex), Pilot: Automobile (Dex), Profession (Wis), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Surveillance (Wis) Table: The Investigator
Class Features All of the following are class features of the investigator: Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Investigators are proficient with all simple weapons, the sap, and personal firearms.Deduction: This ability allows an investigator to pluck critical facts out of the morass of a mystery. It is two parts skill arid three parts luck; sometimes an investigator just happens to recognize a clue that other people would overlook. Deduction is not intended to replace Gather Information, Search, or other forms of active investigation. Instead, it is a bonus to these skills. It gives the investigator access to clues he might have missed, or highlights details that might not have seemed important. Perhaps the party didn't pay attention to the fact that the pattern of broken glass shows that the window was broken from inside the room, or that the guardsman was killed with a blunt weapon, but all of the Irontooth Tribe use spears out of devotion to their god. Usually, Deduction will not solve a mystery, but it will give the investigator a new lead to look into. In every game session, an investigator may make one voluntary Deduction check for every five investigator levels that he possesses. This is an Intelligence check, and the investigator can add his class levels to the roll. The amount of information he receives is based on the result:
If there is no useful information to be gained about a particular situation, the GM should highlight the facts that the party already possesses and try to point the investigator in the right direction. In addition to the investigator's active use of Deduction, a GM may choose to have the character make an involuntary Deduction check at other times, to see if he notices minor details or facts that have slipped by the other characters, This does not count toward the character's voluntary Deduction check limit. While Deduction is mainly useful when an investigator is attempting to solve a crime, it can be helpful in other situations. In general, it can be used any time that the character is faced with a mystery; a good roll should give the investigator a push in the right direction. Read Character: One of the primary skills of the investigator is the ability to size up the people that he meets – to get a sense of their motivations and capabilities. A talented investigator can determine a character's class, alignment, and even level. This requires a Wisdom check against the DC specified below; the investigator may add his class level to this roll, and if he has five or more ranks in Sense Motive he gets an additional +2 synergy bonus.
Determine Partial Alignment allows the investigator to judge his target's bias towards either law and chaos or good and evil; determining the complete alignment requires a more difficult check. As each check can only be attempted once, the investigator can't just use Determine Partial Alignment twice. An investigator may make one check in each category for each target he deals with: no retry is allowed. Each check requires a full minute of observation or conversation, so an investigator with a limited amount of time will have to decide what information he's most interested in. A character can make an impulsive judgment and make a check after a single round, but this increases the DC by 10. The GM should make all checks secretly. If the investigator misses the check by five or fewer points, he simply can't form an opinion; if he misses the roll by more than five points, he should receive incorrect information. Networking: Over the course of a career, a successful investigator will build up a web of contacts and informants, Most investigators specialize in dealing with certain types of people, and this experience transcends personal contacts; an investigator who is used to dealing with criminals will have an edge when he is looking for information in the underworld, even if he is in a city he doesn't know that well. Networking is similar to the favored enemies of a ranger. At level three and every four levels after that, an investigator picks a Networking specialty. The choices are:
An investigator gains a bonus to a number of skills when there is a connection to one of his networking specialties. He gains a bonus to Bluff, Diplomacy, Sense Motive, and Read Character when he's targeting some one covered by the specialty, and a bonus to Gather Information and Knowledge (local) when he's looking for information relating to the specialty. This bonus starts out at +2; every time the investigator selects a new Networking specialty, the bonuses on each of his old specialties are increased by one. In addition, each time an investigator selects a specialty, he gains one special informant in that specialty. The informant begins as a permenant consultant-grade contact, with a loyalty of at least level 3. Should this informant be killed, she will not be replaced. Networking specialties are not exclusive. A baron could be covered by both the aristocratic and government specialties, while a crooked bishop could be criminal and religious. In these cases, an investigator should use the highest bonus he possesses; Networking bonuses are not cumulative. If you have an idea for a specialty that is not on this list – you want your investigator to specialize in naval contacts, for example – that's fine, as long as you can get your GM's approval. Bonus Feats: Investigators can follow many different paths. Some learn to fight, specializing in brawling or disarming enemies. Others focus on honing their deductive abilities. At fourth level and every two levels thereafter, an investigator can pick an extra feat from the following list: Alertness, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Improved Disarm, Investigator, Persuasive, Skill Focus (Gather Information), Skill Focus (Search), Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Stealthy, Track, Unarmed Strike Basics, or any Social feat. The investigator must meet the prerequisites of any bonus feat he wishes to take. Special Abilities: At 9th level and every four levels thereafter, an investigator gets a special ability of his choice from the following:
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